Currently, and as a reference to the state of the art, it must be noted that various systems of water desalination are known; however, the applicant is not aware of any other plants or similarly applicable inventions that present technical characteristics similar to the ones presented by the one recited herein.
In this regard, it is to be noted that many methods for separating water from salts have been reviewed, starting with reverse osmosis, which is the one most widely implanted throughout the world recently, with large energetic costs and facility investments, and ending with flash-effect distillation, which is the one desalting the largest amount of water, although it is associated with small facilities as well as large energetic costs. The above-mentioned proposals resort to conventional energy sources, which makes them very expensive to operate.
Based on renewable energies there are those that, on the one hand, take their energy from hydrothermal sources or waste energy in facilities such as thermoelectric plants and those resorting to sunlight or the wind.
Within those taking the sun as their source of energy there have been several proposals throughout the years, with various efficiencies and complexities. The most recent and successful so far is the one presented by the British company Seawatergreenhouse®, which has facilities in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Oman and the United Arab Emirates and which is the one coming closest to the one proposed herein. It also consists of a large greenhouse that acts as a heat collector, but the evaporation is carried out on an evaporation panel on one of the walls and the condensation is effected thanks to the capture of cold seawater coming from great depths so as to reuse it in the evaporation. Document AU 2010224409-A1, of said company, describes one exemplary embodiment of this technology.
The primary objective of these facilities is the greenhouse rather than the desalination and, in fact, the desalted water is used therein. The efficiencies are not optimised for a maximum throughput and the technical solutions are different from and less efficient than the one proposed herein. They do not use the subsoil as a cooler (in their case, they are dependent on the availability of sea water from great depths so as to have enough frigories) and, in addition, they do not use computer optimisation or the concentration of warm air proposed in the pyramidal structure.
In a similar fashion and in relation to the subject matter, the existence of the following documents must be mentioned: ES 426199, ES 8604071, ES 2346605 A1, ES 2078885 A1, ES 2109888 A1, ES 2185514 A1, FR 2957388 A1, U.S. Pat. No. 4,343,683, EP 626345 A1. This background art describes, in general, solutions based on the evaporation of the water to be treated by solar energy and the subsequent condensation of the water vapour to retrieve the usable water.
The invention, which is based on the use of solar energy, the evaporation of the water to be treated and the condensation of the humid air resulting from the evaporation, proposes an efficient solution for said treatment cycle, in addition to affording important improvements regarding the retrieval of usable water and salt, with high throughput, and providing an inhabitable enclosure susceptible of exploitation for various uses (agriculture, living space, etc.).